Concrete Angel
by mYtORnsaNDaLs
Summary: Merely a child, no one knows that at an early age of nine, her small, petite body was already abused and overworked. No one knows the hardship behind those cheerful bright smiles. 3rd installment in the Tainted-Red Anthology


Yuyu Hakusho is not mine, so there

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Tainted-Red Anthology**

**Concrete Angel**

It was a chilly afternoon, which is not particularly unusual for the winter just ended and spring is on its way. The smell of ripening fruits and blossoming flowers filed the air of the rather busy streets of the central business district. In the farthest corner of the fussy sidewalk where there were lesser offending sounds of horns and shouts of hot-tempered motorists and many hassling passersby, it also was a usual scene to find a little blue-haired girl standing by the wall beside the fancy restaurant… usually clad in a faded frilly small dress that was either too-big or too-small for her size, a pair of wear-off red doll shoes and with basket in hand with flowers - usually pink roses - from the small flower shop in the corner of the downtown where she lived.

From four o'clock in the afternoon when the restaurant usually opens up until midnight or so… depending on her luck or the number of  
customers, she will stand there patiently offered to the random passersby and customers from the restaurant her "freshly cut roses".

With her smiles and sweet, small voice, she would also sing the only song she ever knew and remembered in all of her nine hard-lived years of life.

_Somewhere over the rainbow  
Way up high,  
There's a land that I heard of  
Once in a lullaby_

Usually, people would stop and listen to her song

_Somewhere over the rainbow  
Skies are blue,  
And the dreams that you dare to dream  
Really do come true_

- some will be wondering where might be the parent of this sweet, little child

_Someday I'll wish upon a star  
And wake up where the clouds are far  
Behind me.  
Where troubles melt like lemon drops  
Away above the chimney tops  
That's where you'll find me._

- others might be thinking why a child worked so hard in a chilly pass-winter night

_Somewhere over the rainbow  
Bluebirds fly.  
Birds fly over the rainbow.  
Why then, oh why can't I?_

- mostly will be amazed at the touching, soft voice of an unnamed lost child working so hard in a chilly pass-winter night - then left.

_If happy little bluebirds fly  
Beyond the rainbow  
Why, oh why can't I?_

They all but left, most will just shrug as they leave, some were kind enough to praise her while others were too generous to drop a dime or two in her basket…

But even at what seems to be an unfair world for a child, she was happy… she was glad whenever someone stops and goes, she would smile when she was praised and she would jump if someone gives her money or food. She's such a lively, cheerful little girl one would wonder how she could smile so brightly in the midst of sufferings and injustice surrounding her…ah! The innocence of a child they would exclaim.

But no one knows that after work, she would go back in their shabby, over-priced apartment to be beaten by her alcoholic aunt – her parent died a long time ago – for reasons unknown to her, before going off to work all night in the cheap club somewhere in the town. She would need to get up early to deliver milk to the big houses in the uptown. But she would have to make sure there was breakfast ready for her aunt before she goes. Then after that, she will clean the house and take care of the laundry before going off to Daioh-san mansion, where she would have to baby-sit Daio-kun, which was actually just two or three years younger than her. But my, that brat is so spoiled and whiny which can't be help since he's an only child. But Daio-kun is not always like that…there were times, specially when he noticed that his playmate was too exhausted that he behaves so maturely no one would doubt he would be the nobleman he was doomed to be.

Merely a child, no one knows that at an early age of nine, her small, petite body was already abused and overworked. No one knows the hardship behind those cheerful bright smiles. No one hears of the sweet, soft voice when she cried as she heal her broken knees or complain how sore her body was… when she weep for her lost childhood… No one saw the tears and fears behind those lively eyes… and one would exclaim… Ah! the innocence of a child? Because no one knew and no one would bother…

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There you go folks... The third installment of Tainted-Red Anthology... As I mentioned, the first and second were already posted w/c were The Shoeshiner and The Longest Night consequently... every arc portrays a different characters from YYH... btw, have you guess who's the aforementioned little girl here? Do review, it feeds my ego..lol ja! and i almost forgot... Tainted-Red Anthology is /or will be directly related to Guns and Roses my on-going project... c'',)


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